news- last updated: 28-8-99

Free limited edition CD
The Observer is celebrating 10 years of Blur, by giving its readers* a limited-edition CD with the paper next Sunday (September 5 1999). The highly-collectable 'enhanced CD' contains seven tracks plus interactive footage filmed exclusively for the Observer, where the band talk openly about their career, Britpop, Oasis and why they are still going strong. In a remarkably candid interview with the Observer's Burhan Wazir, Damon Albarn talks about the decade's 'lad culture' and 'Britishnessand how the band found themselves surrounded by "the celebration of masculine, laddish, working class qualities" where "it became almost dirty word to be called middle class and read". The full track listing - chosen by the band - is as follows: Trimm Trabb/Country Sad Ballad Man/He Thought of Cars/This is a Low/Blue Jeans/ She's So High/Beetlebum. Graham Coxon also created special artwork for the CD-Rom cover. The CD is available to readers in London and the South East only

Blur:X
Blur will be staging an exhibition as part of their 10th Anniversary celebration. "Blur:X" will take place at the Lux Gallery in Hoxton Square, London on September 11 and 12 - admission is free. All the original artwork for each of Blur's six albums will be on display. This includes all artwork-in-progress and the photo sessions used to promote them, and selected press that ran around the time of the releases including covers from over the years. Within the gallery, there will be two cinema set-ups showing a whole host of visuals. These will include footage of the Tin the Park, the Starshaped documentary, footage of Blur versus Oasis from News at Ten, and film of an early Leicester gig in 1990. There will also be a collection of familiar Blur props, including the full sized milk carton from the Coffee + TV video, and nine-foot hamburger from the 95 Mile End set. Original lyrics, photos of the band as children, rare video footage, tour laminates and all of Graham's artwork will be on view too. Fans can even get to keep a bit of Blur memorabilia for themselves, as the band have organised for an auction to take place at Hoxton Hall (also in Hoxton Square), during the afternoon of Sunday, September 12. Visitors to the exhibition will be able to register to attend the auction and will be asked to make a £5 donation. All the proceeds will be given to the hall, which is an arts and community centre that runs workshops in drama, photography and visual arts for local people and those with disabilities. It was chosen by Damon as he used to work there as a teenager. The Lux Gallery will be open from 12pm - 6pm on Saturday 11th September and 12pm-4pm on Sunday 12th September. Posters advertising the exhibition will feature the naked girl lying on the back of a hippopotamus, as used in Blur's first single -She's So High back in 1990.

  South American Dates The following dates have been announced for South American gigs in November  
18th - Metropolitan Theatre, Mexico City, Mexico
21st - November Via Funchal, Sao Paulo, Brazil
23rd - November Metropolitan, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
25th - November Monumental Theatre, Santiago, Chile
27th & 28th - Obras Buenos Aires, Argentina

10th Anniversary Box-Set To celebrate Blur's 10th year anniversary in September, a special limited edition 22 CD Box-Set will be released on 13th September with a RRP of £99.99. The Box-Set will feature all blur singles released up until the anniversary including all b-sides. The full tracklisting for the Box-Set:
  CD1: She's So High; I Know; Down; Sing; I Know (extended)  
CD2: There's No Other Way; Inertia; Mr Briggs; I'm All Over; There's No Other Way (The Blur Remix); Won't Do It; Day Upon Day (Live); There's No Other Way (Extended Version)
CD3: Bang; Explain; Luminous; Berserk; Bang (Extended); Uncle Love
CD4: Popscene; Mace; Badgeman Brown; I'm Fine; Garden Central
CD5: For Tomorrow; Into Another; Hanging Over; Peach; Bone Bag; When The Cows Come Home; Beachcoma; For Tomorrow (acoustic version); For Tomorrow (Visit To Primrose Hill Extended)
CD6: Chemical World; Young & Lovely; Es Schmecht; My Ark; Maggie May; Chemical World (Reworked); Never Clever (live); Pressure On Julian (live); Come Together (live).
CD7: Sunday, Sunday; Dizzy; Fried; Shimmer; Long Legged; Mixed Up; Tell Me Tell Me; Daisy Bell; Let's All Go Down The Strand
CD8: Girls & Boys; Magpie; Anniversary Waltz; People In Europe; Peter Panic
CD9: To The End; Girls & Boys (Pet Shop Boys 7" Mix); Girls & Boys (Pet Shop Boys 12" Mix); Threadneedle Street; Got Yer!
CD10: Parklife; Beard; To The End (French Version); Supa Shoppa; Theme From An Imaginary Film
CD11: End Of A Century; Red Necks; Alex's Song
CD12: Country House; One Born Every Minute; To The End (La Comedie); Country House (live); Girls & Boys (live); Parklife (live); For Tomorrow (live)
CD13: The Universal; Ultranol; No Monsters In Me; Entertain Me (Live It! Remix); The Universal (live); Mr. Robinson's Quango (live); It Could Be You (live); Stereotypes (live)
CD14: Stereotypes; The Man Who Left Himself; Tame; Ludwig
CD15: Charmless Man; The Horrors; A Song; St. Louis
CD16: Beetlebum; All Your Life; A Spell For Money; Beetlebum (Mario Caldato Jnr. Mix); Woodpigeon Song; Dancehall
CD17: Song 2; Bustin' & Dronin'; Country Sad Ballad Man (live acoustic); Get Out Of Cities; Polished Stone)
CD18: On Your Own; Chinese Bombs (live at Peel Acres); Movin' On (live at Peel Acres); M.O.R. (live at Peel Acres); Popscene (live at Peel Acres); Song 2 (live at Peel Acres); On Your Own (live at Peel Acres).
CD19: M.O.R. (Road Version); Swallows In The Heatwave; Movin' On (William Orbit Remix); Beetlebum (Moby's Minimal House Mix)
CD20: Tender; All We Want; Mellow Jam; French Song; Song 2
CD21: Coffee & TV; Trade Stylee (Alex's Bugman remix); Metal Hip Slop (Graham's Bugman remix); X- Offender (Damon/ Control Freaks Remix); Coyote (Dave's Bugman Remix)
CD22: TBA

BLUR are shite. Worse than that, they are art-school barrow-boy fakers, blue-blooded mockers of working-class culture, flakey collaborators, lo-fi pretenders, indie traitors and punk sell-outs. And their feet smell.
Everyone, it seems, has found a reason to hate Blur over the last decade. Mogwai may be the latest and most vocal dissenters, but every previous generation from Primal Scream to Embrace has taken an obligatory pop at the million-selling Essex quartet. They have become one huge target, too smug, too successful, too damn punchable for their own good.
And yet, curiously, with every fresh attack Blur seem to grow in stature.
That which does not kill them makes them stronger. Damon Albarn claims, "What goes around comes around, and I think we've taken it on the chin and been knocked down a few times and got back up each time. It feels like we're very strong."
So Damon puts his band's enduring survival down to sheer resilience. But we smell something more sinister: The Curse Of Blur. Call it voodoo, feng shui or some shadowy Faustian pact signed with The Man around the time of 'Modern Life Is Rubbish', but anyone who slags Albarn's Army seems to enter a sudden creative decline into commercial and critical limbo. Even more bizarrely, this process generally occurs after Damon has diplomatically played down the feud and offered level-headed words of peace to his rivals.
So are there powers operating here beyond the usual music business sniping, snobbery and rivalry? And should Mogwai be soiling their Kappa sweatpants at the dark forces of vengeance they have unwittingly unleashed upon themselves? We cannot possibly endorse such superstitious hokum. We merely present the following summaries of Blur's most bitter feuds and the curious fate which befalls their enemies.
Blur vs Suede
Blur vs Tricky
Blur vs Oasis
Blur vs Pavement
Blur vs Manic Street Preachers
Blur vs Mogwai Stephen Dalton

BLUR are to release their 7,000-copy limited-edition box set on September 13. The 22-CD package will contain all of Blur's singles and B-sides with original artwork.
Featuring 124 tracks, it starts with debut single 'She's So High' and will cost '99.99. The 22nd CD, their last single this year, has yet to be decided, although 'No Distance Left To Run' is being tipped - the band have already filmed it for a Top Of The Pops recording.
Blur have also revealed they are to be the subject of ITV arts programme The South Bank Show, due for broadcast in November, and that an exhibition of their artwork, plus film and video footage, takes place at London's Lux Galleries in Shoreditch on September 11 & 12.
Blur also look set to play a 'greatest hits' set at Reading and Leeds festivals over the August Bank Holiday weekend after their ill-received set at T In The Park last month. At the Scottish festival, the band mostly performed songs from their last album, '13'.
A spokesperson told NME: "They play a different set every time. At their recent Dublin gig, they changed it at eight o'clock before they went on. Damon was trying to remember the words of songs he hadn't sung for a while. So we wouldn't be surprised at all if they did a 'greatest hits' set, it would be the sensible way to go."

DAMON ALBARN & MICHAEL NYMAN's soundtrack for the film 'Ravenous' is released on Monday by Virgin. The film opens in the UK on September 3.
Starring Robert Carlyle and directed by Antonia Bird (who also made 'Face' starring Carlyle and Albarn), 'Ravenous' deals with cannibalism in the wild west. It has received mixed reviews in the US.
As previously reported, Damon is also working with ex-Sugarcube Einar on a soundtrack to the Icelandic movie, '101 Reykjavik', and on the soundtrack to 'Ordinary Decent Criminal', directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan and starring Kevin Spacey.
Blur's 'secret' pre-Reading/Leeds warm-up show at London Goldsmith's College - exclusively revealed in NME this week - on August 26 has now completely sold out. Tickets for the festivals are still available.

Since launching their 'Blur: Are Shite' range of T-shirts, Mogwai have generated worldwide interest in the feud.
A management spokesman said: "After the NME news story and the spreading of the news via the Internet, we received quite a large response via e-mails. Even we were surprised by it!
"Interestingly, very few pro-Blur e-mails were received from the UK. There were more from North America and Australia."
Of all the correspondence received, Mogwai claim 78 per cent agreed that Blur were 'shite', 12 per cent thought Mogwai were shite, six per cent thought it was a cheap publicity stunt and four per cent said the band wouldn't sell any anti-Blur shirts.
Blur have still not responded to the claims.
BLUR'S 22 SINGLE DECADE
More details have emerged about the BLUR limited-edition box set released in September to celebrate their tenth anniversary. Speaking on a live chat last week on the Top Of The Pops website, drummer Dave Roundtree said: "I can tell you that it's going to be a 22 CD box set of singles. Every single we've ever released. I can't tell you any more yet, otherwise I'd upset the record company people. It's part of our 10th anniversary celebrations."
The box set, which has yet to be named, will be Blur's next release, despite reports that 'No Distance Left To Run' will be rush-released as the band's next single.
It may be the exclusive single available only with the set (Blur's single releases to date total 21 - so there's an exclusive or new single included in the set) and the Top Of The Pops appearance will be a special to promote this release.
To celebrate Blur's 10th year anniversary in September, a special 22 CD Box-Set is to be released. The rather large Box-Set will feature all blur singles released up until the anniversary. However, it has still not been officially confirmed but a date should be    

Dave Online Chat
On 15th July, Dave Rowntree answered questions from fans on his own online chat at the BBC Entertainment website beeb.com. A full transcript is available at the site.  

Coffee & MTV - Blur Live MTV - Saturday 7th August 9:30pm/Sun

3862 Days
On 16th July it will be exactly 3862 Days since Blur first rehersed together as a group. Stuart Maconie, who has travelled, celebrated and commiserated with Blur since their early days of tiny pub gigs, has written 3862 Days: The Official History of Blur. It's out on 16th July pticed £12.99. More information on 3862 Days  

Mogwai get lairy
Mogwai, recently launched a new line of T-shirts to their Merchandise range at the 1999 Glastonbury Festival. The new T-shirt reads 'blur: are shite' in the Mogwai font. Band member 'Stuart Braithwaite' told Select magazine: "We just had to, They're a bunch of cunts". The 'blur: are shite' T-shirt, a long with others with original and stylish designs are available at their Award Winning Official Website at http://www.mogwai.clara.net . Through selling the T-shirt, the band hope to raise enough money to replace a broken valve in Mr Braithwaite's practice amp.  

Coffee + TV
Coffee + TV only managed to reach #11 in the UK Charts, in its first week  

Dazed & Confused
Damon, Graham, Alex & Dave all feature on separate covers of Style magazine 'Dazed & Confused'. The July issue features separate interviews with each Blur member. Damon meets Kathy Burke. Alex meets Marianne Faithfull, Graham meets Sam Taylor Wood. Dave meets Daisy Donavan.

Select Magazine
Blur have made the front cover of the August issue of Select. It's exactly 12 months since Blur were last on the cover for headlining Glastonbury 98.  

Top of the Pops
A recorded performance of Coffee & TV will be shown on TOTP on Friday 9th July